The way the system is being demonstrated, the driver is greeted by a robot valet upon entering the parking area and guided part of the way. The driver then gets out and the car continues on its way and parks itself.

BMW Connected turns the vehicle and mobile devices into touchpoints for the Open Mobility Cloud. At CES 2017, BMW will be showcasing digital services that will allow drivers of future automated vehicles to optimise the way they plan their daily lives. One such feature will enable drivers to access wide-ranging information about places or buildings they see along their route. The information can be selected using BMW Augmented Gesture Control – a new form of gesture control – by pointing at a particular building, for example. The connected driving experience will also be enhanced by intelligent voice control. BMW Connected demos will feature a visionary concept of an in-car voice-controlled personal digital assistant that customers are familiar with in other areas of their daily life. The system being presented at CES 2017 is the in-car application of Microsoft’s Cortana. This means that the voice-controlled capabilities already offered by Microsoft Cortana on a home PC could or smartphone in future also be available on board a BMW. For example, BMW Connected can provide a reminder en-route of an upcoming appointment for which no location has yet been fixed. And Cortana can be used to make a suitable restaurant recommendation and reserve a table.

Another service possible with future versions of BMW Connected is delivery of tens of thousands of goods while the customer is on the road. Amazon Prime Now, which is integrated into all the user’s devices (both in and outside the vehicle) via the Open Mobility Cloud, enables goods to be ordered through the app while drivers are on the way to their next destination. The En-Route Delivery service will be presented at CES 2017 in conjunction with Amazon Prime Now.

A further example of this collaboration with Amazon Prime Now is BMW Passenger Mode. Based on the selected route, BMW Connected can tell when the vehicle will switch to automated driving and the driver could have time, say, to use Amazon Prime Video. In Passenger Mode, the vehicle can then adapt to the passengers’ needs in different situations. For instance, when rear-seat passengers start playing a video, the interior lighting is immediately dimmed and the sunblinds closed.